Detroit (Michigan) Union Christmas Hors d'oeuvres Table by Ruth Paget

Detroit (Michigan) Union Christmas Hors d’oeuvres Table by Ruth Paget 

I went to many union Christmas mixer parties as a young person in Detroit (Michigan), because my mother was an elected union officer (usually recording secretary and/or trustee Union Printers’ Home in Colorado Springs, Colorado). 

The Christmas mixer was covert for next year’s union organizing I think in reality, but the mixer attendees kiddified the proceedings due to my presence. 

I was brought to the mixer, because I wanted to learn about politics and international affairs. My mother’s union included Canadian members (The union was named The International Typographical Union for printers now part of the Communication Workers’ of America.) 

Many of my mother’s colleagues were of Eastern European heritage and were heritage speakers of languages like Polish and Hungarian. During the height of the Cold War with the former Soviet Union, some of these people may have been recruited to translate in their heritage languages and maybe learn Russian in addition to their printing work. 

My mom’s colleagues made an “hors d’oeuvres table” for the mixer that resembled a Russian zakuski hors d’oeuvres table that is placed against a wall for easy replenishment.  It helps with crowd control, too.  You get your food there and then move out to the center of the room to mingle. 

The hors d’oeuvres table was laid out in three rows. The first row had china plates and white cotton napkins placed between the plates. You picked up a plate and kept the napkin between the plate and your hand. Under the plates was a sliced cheese hors d’oeuvres with a rye-krisp cracker square spread with mustard-mayonnaise and a rectangular slice of cheddar cheese on top. Two or three black olive slices sat on top of the cheese. (I think these were mock versions of Russian smoked salmon appetizers topped with sour cream and caviar.) 

The second row held a large bowl of baked, ridged potato chips. Above the chips was a large bowl of sour cream dip with French onion soup mixed in it. I still love this hors d’oeuvres combination. 

In the third row, there would be three-inch slices of celery stuffed with a mix of cream cheese mixed with diced pineapple. The sticky cream cheese was dunked in crushed walnuts to top of this crunchy delicacy. 

There was room for all these treats on my large plate; no small cocktail plates at the union Christmas mixer.

Next to the hors d’oeuvres tables was a cooler full of ice and mixed sodas. You had to balance the plate and soda in your left hand as you ate and drank. 

My mother’s colleagues joked with me about international affairs, “You have to have strong legs to do cocktail parties. There are never any chairs.” 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Holiday Hamburgers Fried This Morning by Ruth Paget

Ho Ho Ho!

The holidays are here.  I fried up 8 Omaha Steaks hamburgers this morning and pyrexed them to go with Caesar salad for lunches before Christmas.

Merry Mom is enjoying Christmas, too!.

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Truffled Cheddar Cheese Holiday Nibble Suggested by Ruth Paget

Truffled Cheddar Cheese Holiday Nibble by Ruth Paget 

People who like the tangy flavor and dense texture of aged cheddar cheese might enjoy trying Modesto, California’s Fiscalini Farmstead’s truffled cheddar cheese as a holiday nibble. 

I bought Fiscalini truffled cheddar cheese at Nob Hill in Salinas, California and Petaluma, California’s Rustic Bakery Olive Oil and Sea Salt Flatbread at Star Market in Salinas as a handy wafer for the truffled cheddar. 

I like to eat tangy cheddar cheese with ale beers. Truffled cheddar has an earthy, tangy bite which I think would pair well with Belgian ales like Duvel (Flemish for “devil” – I drink these in mini versions) and Lindeman’s classic lambic beer. Georgia’s Blue Moon Belgian-style white ale would probably work with the truffled cheddar as well. Belgian ales are available for purchase at Total Wine in Sand City, California. 

This truffled cheddar snack and ale go well with shelled, walnuts to tone down the tangy flavor, which you can buy at Costco in Sand City, California. 

Happy last minute shopping for holiday snacks!

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Foods of Sicily & Sardinia and the Smaller Islands Reviewed by Ruth Paget

Foods of Sicily and Sardinia and the Smaller Islands Reviewed by Ruth Paget 

I purchased Foods of Sicily & Sardinia and the Smaller Islands (Elba, Giglio, Capri, and Ischia) by Giuliano Bugialli after vacationing in the Sicilian city of Arcireale between Taormina and Syracuse when my husband Laurent and I lived in Stuttgart, Germany. 

Bugialli writes that Sicily has been at the crossroads of war and invasion for centuries beginning with the tug-of-war between ancient Rome and Carthage. Even Swabian Germans from the area around Stuttgart had been invaders of Sicily at one time. 

The Sicilians have developed a civilizations that is able to withstand misery, maintain cultural values, and eventually become rich enough to entice new invaders to chase out the old ones. I wanted to see what I could learn about survival in the 21st century from my trip there and used Bugialli’s cookbook to ferret out some great recipes and clues about how towns and lifestyle are organized in Sicily from the book’s photos. 

I chose the following four recipes to show how inventive the Sicilian are with vegetables, olive oil, lemons, oranges, red wine vinegar, herbs, and fish (California has all these ingredients and can do the same thing by the way.): 

*melanzane marinate (grilled and marinated eggplant) 

This dish calls for a marinade that will later double as a sauce. You marinate eggplant slices in a mix made with anchovies, garlic cloves, rosemary leaves, sage leaves, lemon juice, oregano, and olive oil. You then grill the eggplant and use the marinade as a sauce. 

*zucchini marinate (grilled and marinated zucchini) 

For this dish, you grill zucchini slices in olive oil and then let them marinate in a mix of olive oil, salt, basil leaves, mint leaves, salt and pepper, and red wine vinegar. 

*pesce all erbe aromatiche (swordfish or tuna fish marinated in aromatic herbs) 

For this recipe, fish strips are sautéed in olive oil and then marinated in a sauce made with mint leaves, verbena leaves, basil leaves, parsley, sage leaves, rosemary leaves, capers, oregano leaves, red onion slices, lemon juice, olive oil, and red wine vinegar. 

*insalata di arance (orange salad) 

This recipe is made with peeled orange slices laid out on a serving dish with chopped celery hearts and walnuts strewn on top of the orange slices. The oranges are then drizzled with olive oil and red wine vinegar and salt and pepper. 

In addition to well-written recipes, this cookbook provides cultural information with photographs about sheep shearing, the Vucciaia Market in Palermo, and the Sicilian cassata Easter cake. 

To enhance meals out to Sicilian restaurants in the United States or travel to Sicily, reading Foods of Sicily & Sardinia and the Smaller Islands by Giuliano Bugialli can serve as a great reference. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Venetian da Fiore Cookbook Reviewed by Ruth Paget

Venetian da Fiore Cookbook Reviewed by Ruth Paget 

The da Fiore Cookbook: Recipes from Venice’s Best Restaurant by Damiano Martin has several recipes that are doable at home that could be served on the weekend or for a lunch with a Venetian Carnival theme or for a New Year’s Bal Masqué (Masked Ball). 

The recipes that I thought looked delicious and easy to prepare for a weekend lunch or party follow: 

*da Fiore Steamed Mussels made with garlic cloves sautéed in olive oil with chopped plum tomatoes, brandy, chopped basil leaves, chopped parsley, and salt and pepper -gratin of taglioni pasta with radicchio and shrimp 

-taglioni is a pasta that is thinner than spaghetti and made from eggs. Radicchio is a favorite lettuce-like vegetable in Venice that has a ball-like shape and red-purple leaves. Radicchio is bitter raw, but mellows with cooking, especially if mixed with Parmesan -

In this baked recipe, da Fiore calls for braising the radicchio and shrimp in butter with onion, white wine, and cream as a sauce. -boiled taglioni is placed in a baking dish with the sauce mixed in and Parmesan on top before heating. 

-this long description shows how much I love gratins! 

*pennette with sea scallops ad broccoli florets -In this dish, boiled broccoli is mixed with sautéed scallops to go with small tubular pasta cut on the diagonal and topped with Parmesan 

*spaghetti served with clams in a tomato-white wine sauce 

*whole wheat pasta (bigoli) with salsa made of sardines, white wine, extra virgin olive oil, and onions 

Finally, a dish I would leave to a personal chef or restaurant to prepare is pumpkin gnocchi with Parmesan, sage, and white truffles from Italy. (This dish just calls for extra dabs of butter.) 

Fish and seafood lovers as well as home gardeners will find many recipes of interest in The da Fiore Cookbook about Venetian cuisine in Italy by Damiano Martin. This cookbook also has dramatic, skyward photos of Venice that make it a nice coffee table book. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Wonton Glass Noodle Soup at Chopstix in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget

Wonton Glass Noodle Soup Shout Out for Chopstix in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget 

I learned to love wonton noodle soup when my sister K. worked at the Ho-Ho Inn in Detroit, Michigan and later when I would order it for take-out from Mekong House in Chicago, Illinois after work when I ate at home in the Marina City apartment building next door. 

Both the Ho-Ho Inn (Chinese) and Mekong House (Vietnamese) made delightful pork-scallion wontons soup. The dumpling wrapper was pinched together at the top to look like a little coin purse (so cute and delicious at the same time). 

It is pretty safe to say that I am predisposed to like wonton soup even before tasting it, but I really did like the wonton glass noodle soup made by Chopstix in Salinas, California that I ordered for delivery recently. (I like having a reasonable priced delivery option. I would have used this all the time when I lived in snowy and icy Chicago). 

The bottom bowl in the delivery kits was halfway full of transparent, glass noodles, which are usually made of mung beans. On top of these, Chopstix mounded up layers of steamed vegetables: broccoli florets, mushroom caps, slices of Napa cabbage, half moon slices of zucchini, thin slices of carrots with zigzag edges, and a few small slices of chopped onion. 

Over these vegetables and noodles, you use the second container of broth and wontons to pour over the pork-scallions wontons, shrimp halves, shredded chicken breast, and broth. For a large container of soup, there were easily three pours of soup to go over the noodles and vegetables. 

The broth itself tastes of onion, cilantro, and salt with the combined stocks of pork, chicken, and shrimp. I love flavorful, nutrient-rich stocks like these. Shrimp broth, for example, has calcium, selenium, protein, and antioxidants in it. 

For a robust comfort food soup, wonton glass noodle soup with vegetables at Chopstix in Salinas, California is pretty hard to beat. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Pucker: A Cookbook for Citrus Lovers Reviewed by Ruth Paget

Pucker: A Cookbook for Citrus Lovers Reviewed by Ruth Paget 

Pucker: A Cookbook for Citrus Lovers by Gwendolyn Richards, a Calgary Herald food writer from Alberta Province (Canada), provides several recipes of interest for agricultural sales in places like California. 

The recipes that I thought looked especially interesting include:

-baked ricotta dipping pots with lemon and chives 

-shaved Brussels sprouts, shaved shallots, and chopped walnut salad with lemon dressing 

-chopped asparagus cubes (raw) with chopped green onions and sliced almonds with lemon dressing  

-roasted sheet pan lemon potatoes with garlic and oregano. After 15 minutes of baking, you add chicken stock and lemon juice to make the potatoes very tender. (A rimmed baking sheet would cut down on oven mess.)

-linguine with tuna and lemon dressing with arugula leaves mixed in 

Citrus lovers will enjoy the recipes for lemons, Meyer lemons (a cross between lemons and oranges), limes, and grapefruit in Pucker as well as chefs, busy young professionals, college students who like gourmet food, farmers’ market patrons, and world travelers. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France